Daily Times

Historically, social and political movements in most parts of the world have been closely linked to relations of domination, exploitation, oppression and subjugation. Today, women in Pakistan, arguably, enjoy a much better status than what they did a decade ago. The socio-historical analysis of women’s movements is turning relevant in both historical and sociological perspectives, complementing one another as scholarly disciplines because both are concerned with social structures and with the interpretation of social action. Yet these two disciplines also differ. Historians see their main task as the analysis of change over time and, to do that, they focus on specific events at specific times and places. Sociologists seek explanations of social change that they can generalise, and base new generalisations on specific historical studies. Partly for these reasons historians tend to borrow generalisations from sociologists and apply them to specific contexts, while sociologists often build new generalisations on the basis of specific historical studies.

The transformation in the women’s movement is directly connected with political processes in the country, as well as the shifting of the class structure. Ziaul Haq’s period saw the worst cases of repression against women, students, political parties and civil society in general. On the other hand, it is not wrong to call it a golden era of activism in terms of the women’s movement in the struggle for their rights. It is pertinent to ask why true democracy has not been established in Pakistan; one reason is linking religion to the state — as it happened during Ziaul Haq’s regime. The Women’s Action Forum (WAF) was formed in 1981 to strengthen women’s position in Pakistani society. The reason for the creation of the WAF was the oppressive Zia regime of the 1980s and formulation of his discriminatory laws that violated the fundamental rights of women. A group of women agreed to formulate the policy statements and engage in political action to safeguard women’s legal position, especially with reference to the Hudood laws.

The famous protest in Lahore by a large number of WAF members led public protests to register their viewpoint against the law of evidence in the regime of General Ziaul Haq is a historical landmark. The women activists that gathered on the Lahore Mall on February 12, 1983, to protest against anti-women legislation were stopped from proceeding to the Lahore High Court and were baton-charged and tear gassed. Many of them were put behind bars for raising their voice against the dictator. That day can surely be called the National Women’s Day of Pakistan.

Various cases appeared, misled by Hudood laws, which sorely victimised the women. In July 1983, a case against Safia Bibi was lodged. Safia Bibi, an 18-years-old virtually blind girl, had been sentenced to public lashing (15 lashes), three years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1,000 on charges of adultery by a Sahiwal court.

The two major cases that WAF took up were those of Fehmida and Allah Bukhsh, and Safia Bibi. There were many others. Fehmida, a young woman from a lower middle class family and Allah Bakhsh, a bus driver, had fallen in love and, in the face of opposition from her family, she eloped and married. Her parents filed a case of kidnapping against Allah Bukhsh. The police went to their house where, finding him and an obviously pregnant Fehmida, they arrested the couple on the charge of zina or extramarital sex, a crime punishable by death under the newly instituted Hudood laws. In September 1981, the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) sentenced the couple to 80 lashes and death by stoning.

The event of February 1983 can rightly be described as a new chapter in the struggle of Pakistani women for their rights, as they were able to stand up to naked state repression to register their point. In Ziaul Haq’s dark era, when every political activity was crushed and every dissension was smashed, women leaders and activists stirred the political waters through their demonstrations and exposed the regime’s brutality.

The decade of the 1980s has truly been a decade of the women of Pakistan. A powerful women’s movement made a dramatic impact on Pakistan’s political scene. The concrete achievements of the women’s movement in its struggle against the policies of General Zia’s military regime, which were directed against women in the name of Islamisation, have not been inconsiderable.

The dark era of Zia and his anti-women legislation have thrown society into a myraid of intolerance and inhuman punishments, which have left lasting effects on the collective political matrix of the state. There were many instances in the dark era when people took the law into own their hands — bigots who took it upon themselves the task of chastising women, total strangers, and molesting them under that excuse. For example, here is an instance, which is by no means unique or isolated: a woman, who entered a bakery in an upper class Lahore neighbourhood, was slapped by a total stranger for not having her head covered. Such outrageous conduct was the direct result of incitement by the propaganda of the Zia regime, which had created an atmosphere of bigotry and intolerance.

This historical perspective is very relevant in understanding the genesis of the women’s movement in Pakistan and the sociological imperative of women getting their rightful place in society, in this millennium when all over the world women are occupying important positions in government, industry and in society, and marching shoulder to shoulder with men in every sphere.

The writer is a freelance columnist and independently conducting research on the partition of 1947. He can be reached at janjuaharoon01@gmail.com and on twitter @JanjuaHaroon